Dilip Kumar

News Highlights

  • Mohanty stressed that the double dose of vaccination in people has reduced the severity of infections among people contracting the virus after inoculation.

  • The top health official said that the restrictions had been imposed to break the chain of infections, which has yielded fruits.

  • The severity in Covid patients has come down following double doses of the vaccines, Mohanty said.

Bhubaneswar: The series of lockdowns and shutdowns enforced by the State government of Odisha has really fructified results as anticipated, DMET CBK Mohanty said today.

Addressing mediapersons, Mohanty stressed that the double dose of vaccination in people has reduced the severity of infections among people contracting the virus after inoculation.

Speaking on the impact of the lockdown, the top health official said that the restrictions had been imposed to break the chain of infections, which has yielded fruits.

The severity in Covid patients has come down following double doses of the vaccines, he said.

The Covid-19 vaccine- Covishield developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca and India’s home-grown-Covaxin are effective against the Delta variant of the Coronavirus, said the DMET.

Two jabs of either vaccine have been found initiating protection against the highly transmissible variant that has emerged as a major challenge for the government. The expert bodies like National Task Force and ICMR have opined that both Covishield and Covaxin are working against Delta Variant. We hope their anticipation would come true,” he added.

Mohanty further said the necessity of third dose for senior citizens has not yet been recommended by any international or national expert body. The lancet report on third dose to elderly is based on the research on RNA vaccine which is yet to be used by the State, Mohanty maintained.

Clarifying on the global tender for vaccine procurement, the DMET said, "It was necessitated after Centre advised the States to arrange doses for the 18-44 age group. Now, the Centre has announced to provide the jabs to States free of cost. We should welcome the move as it would lessen the burden on State government.”

However, the distribution of the vaccines would depend on the supply chain, he said.

On the Nasal spray vaccine, the senior health expert said that research is still in progress on the nasal spray vaccines for Covid-19. A similar kind of vaccine was administered into the nose of the Swine Flu patients. So, the efficacy of such a new variety of vaccine would be known after the research is over, he added.

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